FRONTIERS OF ZOOLOGYDale A. Drinnon has been a researcher in the field of Cryptozoology for the past 30+ years and has corresponded with Bernard Heuvelmans and Ivan T. Sanderson. He has a degree in Anthropology from Indiana University and is a freelance artist and writer. Motto: "I would rather be right and entirely alone than wrong in the company with all the rest of the world"--Ambroise Pare', "the father of modern surgery", in his refutation of fake unicorn horns.

Saturday, 13 August 2011

Pink Tentacle Abominable Yokai

Here is a sampling of standard Wildmen types listed as Yokai (Traditional Japanese Monsters) from the Pink Tentacle site and amplified by a few examples from Wikipedia. The first one illustrated here IS pretty much the standard (Eurasian-Almas) Wildman and going under the name Satori. It is said to be able to read minds (my cat can "read my mind" to a limited extent and part of that is picking up on body language, scents and other things that most human beings are not used to picking up on. But my cat and I can gague each other's emotional state and intentions without direct communication to some extent) The name "Satori" is very interesting and it has been stated to be the direct transliteration of the Classical term "Satyr" as introduced by early Portugese missionaries.
"The satori is a type of mountain-dwelling goblin that can read human minds. When it encounters travelers passing through the mountains, the creature approaches them and begins speaking their thoughts aloud.[or mocking them, as in "Monkey See, Monkey Do"?-DD] Once the victims become thoroughly confused and disoriented, the satori captures and eats them.
It is said that an empty mind is the best protection against a satori attack. Thinking nothing at all causes the creature to turn away in boredom or flee in fear. A notorious satori named Omoi lives on the slopes of Mt Fuji"

"The 'wild woman' shown here appears to be an aquatic humanoid with scaly skin, webbed hands and feet (each with three fingers and toes), long black hair, and a large red mouth. People claim to have encountered the creature in the 1750s in mountain streams in the Asakura area of Fukuoka prefecture "

Another wild Woman as a transcription of the Chinese variety (Yeren) from the Wikipedia entry Shojo. In native Japanese the term Shojo also means "Young Woman" or "Virgin" but the Wikipedia has this as a translation of the Chinese term Shing-Shing. Please note that this "Wild Woman" is positioned much the same as the last one and it is otherwise comparable.

Kijimuna are tree sprites from Okinawa and the native equivalent to "Troll Dolls." young-Urchin "Onis" are also depicted with big bushy hair like this.

Onis are the standard Japanese Ogres or Trolls and so the exact local equivalent of "Marked Hominids": in this case they are commonly depicted as redheads. Onis are also depicted as the Demons in Hell and so I suppose that makes them the equivalent of Big Hairy Monsters or Hairy Bipeds [I do not call any such reports "Bigfoot" reports-once a report crosses over a line to become supernatural, I cross it off of my list. Not my territory to cover those.]Female Onis can also be seductive, like teenage European Troll girls are supposed to be.

Onis are also the local equivalent of Ghouls (Guls) as this print shows:

Hibagon (ヒバゴン?) or Hinagon (ヒナゴン?) is the Japanese equivalent of the Bigfoot or Yeti.

DescriptionThe hibagon is described as a black creature with white hands and large white feet, standing about five feet tall. Sightings have been reported in forested, mountainous areas of the country.[1] It has been reported in the forests around Mount Hiba in Hiroshima Prefecture and has been said to resemble a gorilla.[2]

The creature is reported to look like an ape and smell like decaying flesh. It is said to live in low shrubbery on the foothills of Mt. Hiba and also areas around Hibayama National Park. A typical sighting says that it is about five feet tall with a face shaped like an inverted triangle. The Hibagon has a snub nose, large deep glaring eyes and is covered with bristles. Theories to account for this cryptid range from a gorilla, a wild man, or a deserter from the Japanese army, to an individual ravaged by atomic radiation from the nuclear attack on Hiroshima. A sighting from 1972 reports that the creature has a chocolate brown face and is covered with brown hair. Although the Hibagon is said to have 'deep glaring eyes', in two reports by a Mr. Sazawa and a Mrs. Harada, the creature took no hostile action and fled from four armed residents intent on hunting it. Japanese Boy Scouts claimed to find footprints 25 cm (10 in) long and 15 cm (6 in) wide. As with most hominid cryptids, the Hibagon is said to have a most unpleasant stench, like a decomposing human body.[3]

As far as the smell goes, that usually comes from eating carrion and handling carcasses. As far as identity goes, Hibagon are probably the local population corresponding to Yetis and Yerens. because of that, it is most surprising to find this depiction on the Pink Tentacle site:

Which is a supposed anatomical section of a demonic creature called a "Kasha --a Cat-like demon that descends from the sky to feed on corpses before cremation" and is therefore assumedly attached to Buddhist mythology imported from areas Westward and Continental (because of the cremation-desecration angle). In fact this is a fair copy of a Tibetan "Big Yeti" confused as a "Snow Lion" and its urinary bladder is in fact said to contain ice here (meaningless, but probably a marker that the legend originated in Tibet). So this is a transposed version of a "Dzu-Teh" or "Nyalmo" and described as a troublesome demon. And because of this, I doubt that such a thing is supposed to live locally: it is just an indication of how legends diffuse over the Orient.

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